This year, we are pleased to be supporting Small Business Saturday UK, a grassroots, non-commercial campaign encouraging people to shop in small businesses in their communities and to encourage small businesses to invest in their digital business capabilities to increase e-commerce and exports. On Saturday 2nd December 2017, people across the UK are encouraged to support all types of small businesses, both in stores and online. Many small businesses will also take part in the day by hosting events and offering discounts.

We are proud to support Small Business Saturday. UK small businesses are the backbone of the our economy, and they play a big role in helping us serve millions of customers, creating 74,000 SME jobs here in Britain and achieving £1.8bn exports last year. Their ability to harness the power of the internet and technology is key to the UK’s competitiveness, and we want to champion their continued success.

Debuting this year is the “Small Business Saturday Blue Sofa” where interviews and exclusive Q and A sessions will be live streamed via Facebook Live. On 17th November live from the Blue Sofa at City Hall in London, Simon Donegan, our head of UK Seller Services for Amazon offer his advice to small businesses on how to use the internet and technology to reach customers around the world and grow their revenue.

Small businesses and individuals selling on Amazon will also be on the Blue Sofa across the country talking about how they have grown revenue and opened up more stores through e-commerce. A great example is Shearer Candles, who employ around 50 people in roles such as skilled candle makers and shift leaders. They believe that having an online presence has also helped contribute to their physical expansion as they prepare to open their fourth store on the high street: “It’s a really exciting time for us and you can never entirely know where sales come from,” says Ian Barnet, Managing Director of Shearer Candles. “Someone might see our shop in the street and look us up online, or see us online and realise we have a store near them and come in to see in person what we can offer. The important thing is that we have those opportunities for people to see us, and by being on Amazon, customers know that buying from us is a safe process.”

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